BACK IN CONSTRUCTION

The back door on Paul and Karla's shed was rotting away and in need of replacement. As a thank you for being so kind to us and letting us stay on their site here at Mountain Shadow we volunteered to fix it for them.

Larry took the door off and was able to save the frame.

Since we didn't have all the tools we needed with us we were able to get all the wood cut to the size we needed at Lowes. (no extra charge)
A little bit of a mess for me to clean up.

My job was to prime and paint the door and all the trim.

The finish project is a perfect fit.

CHRISTMAS 2010

Larry gave me some pretty flowers for Christmas.

For Christmas breakfast I made an egg and ham souffle. At noon we went to the activity center for a ham and turkey covered dish dinner with over 30 other couples. It was a very nice meal and I'm sorry I forgot my camera.

The gifts all around the tree.

Larry surprised me with the Nookcolor. I would love to lend books with anyone else who has one. Also any helpful hints you may have about its use.

My sister gave me a calendar with pictures of her travel with us on the Oregon Trail in August.

I am so glad to have gotten a new Journal. It is a great way of keep track where we have been, when we were there and what we did. I have filled two already. We really enjoy going back and referring to them.

Going to try and eat healthier this year! The books and the scale should help. Other gifts were new cutting boards, a RADA tomato knife (suppose to work great), and a collapsible colander (what a space saver).

This little bag is amazing. Look how big it becomes. This should be great in going to the store, maybe I'll remember to use it, since I can clip it to my purse.

I love games, books, music and puzzles for Christmas, so you can see I had a great one.

Kathy sent me Quiddler, a short word game. She has been my word guru since collage. Word games are not my strength, but always good to keep working at them. Larry agreed to play it with me Christmas evening. Amazingly I beat him twice. ( He beat me twice at Scrabble Slam, my other new game).

I couldn't believe the letters in my hand. Q,Z, E, E. and a few other crazy letters. What could I spell with them?
Hope you all had as nice a Christmas Day as Larry and I did.

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

We blew into Wilderness Lake on Sunday, December 19. It had been raining here since Wednesday. A huge storm from the Pacific hit southern California.

We got parked before the rain started up again and lasted for the next three days.

Your feet and pants were sure to get wet when walking outside the RV. This picture was taken from of our RV of the "pond" we were parked beside.

Nice lease site property!

This road was closed on Tuesday. It was covered with flowing water and a car was in the ditch.

The ducks love all this water. This canal went over the bank and closed this road out of the park. There was voluntary evacuation, but we chose to stay and luckily it didn't get any worse.

I guess this is why they call it Wilderness Lakes.

This new housing development at the end of the preserve was the hope we wouldn't get flooded out. There was a new water channel built to prevent flooding. Oops the water took out one tree.

Days later the water is way down, but strongly flowing and wearing away the land.

We can walk outside on dry land.

This dairy farm is beside the preserve and causes a lot of flies and smell. Lucky for us the wind has been blowing away from were we are parked.

I spent a few hours dancing with Faye and Cheri each morning. In the afternoon Larry and I would take a 2 mile walk stopping off at the adult center. Larry would watch some TV while I worked in the puzzle room with Linda and her husband.

A FRIENDLY TOURNAMENT

Larry has enjoyed playing pickleball every morning. I've played a little bit but often I'm on a slower pace in the morning and do other things around the RV.

On Saturday morning they had their first friendly tournament. You could play in the aggressive or non aggressive group. Larry was with the aggressive. Everyone played five games. Some of you who played pickleball in Florida will recognize Paul, Larry's partner for this match.
Ede is hitting the ball. We met her 3 years ago at Wilderness Lake. It was good to see her again.

This is the last match. It was exciting to watch. The finally score was 11 to 13, so you know it was a battle.

Dennis (also played in Florida) and Larry against Rick and Don.

The winners of the aggressive group - 1st place Dennis, 2nd place Larry and 3rd place Jim. This was Larry first tournament. Congratulations!

Susan and Ken tied for 1st place (Ken and Faye are also pickleball players from Florida). Bob came in 3rd.

ARIZONA BOUND

We got to Sacramento at rush hour so we decided to get off I-5 and take 113 to 12 and back on I-5 at Lodi. We had done this before to avoid construction on I-5 when we left from Lodi to go to Alaska. What we didn't remember was how terrible the roads were - narrow and bumpy, not a fun detour. We will stay on I-5 and traffic next time. We stayed that night at Manteca, CA at Turtle Beach Fish Camp. It is a Thousand Trail preserve. It was HOT and dusty. It was a good overnight stop, not too far off I-5 and at least we had water and electricity, but we don't want to stay here very long.

The next day we drove to exit 167 on I-5 and stayed at this very nice Wal Mart. It was a large shopping center with lots of stores besides Wal Mart. We left at 4 a.m. to get around LA on 210. There was still traffic at this time of day (or night!), but at least we didn't have the sun for awhile to head into.

There are lots of steep mountains to go over in this part of California and Arizona. The scenery is quite different- Arizona Highways.

We got diesel at the Flying J in Phoenix $2.93 a little cheaper than we saw in California or Oregon. We arrived here at West World in Scottsdale about 2 o'clock.
The temperature was 110.

We got a spot near a "tree", but it is a big parking lot. We do have 50 amps and water and it is only $22 a day. The people were very nice and we have a nice restroom to use. We are the only people here. I wonder why ? :) - with the temperature in the triple digits all the time!

This is a very busy place most of the time, just not in the summer.

Plenty of parking!

On Saturday we took a drive around the area and stopped at this Casino. We saw an ad for it on TV. Prime rib for $9.99. We were there at 1 o'clock so we had a very good buffet at the restaurant for $ 8.00. We had joined their players club so we got a little discount on the meal and $10 promo money on a card to play.

It was Larry's lucky day. He played 50 cents on a slot machine and hit for $180. We lost the rest of the $10 that they had given us and left. So the only money we spent was the $20 for our meals and came away $180 richer- amazing!

HEADING SOUTH

I missed posting these four pictures so they are a little out of order. Our windshield being taken out. You will see why in a minute.

Our windshield being put back in, the same one they just took out.

These people have five yellow labs in their RV. One of the dogs has cancer and had to have her front leg removed. They had just put together a wagon so she could go on 'walks' with the other dogs.

Our windshield after the "repair".

I couldn't resist this pot of sunflowers. I just hope they last longer than the one I picked along the road.

Driving on I-5 in Oregon a rock flew from somewhere and broke the drivers side windshield. Larry had me mark the ends to see if they start to spider.

We were outside Eugene, OR and they have all the glass for the Monaco windshields since their plant use to be here. So we called in the morning and got an appointment at 1:00. As you can see it started to spider.

You already saw the rest of the story. The reason they put the broken windshield back in was they didn't have a windshield in stock to fit our RV. They were suppose to have three but could find none. They have another place in Phoenix, AZ that has one.What a coincidence! They are coming to our campground on Sept 8 at 6:30am to replace it.
So we left with it worse then when we came.

Entering California. A few miles further on I-5 and everyone has to go through an agricultural check point. Since we are from PA they had to look under the RV and car for gypsy moths. We were spotless and received our certificate.

A lot of hills and curves in northern California. The scenery is quite different than Oregon. That is Mount Shasta at 14,700 feet.

You could see it for miles, finally we were across from it at the rest stop.

When we rounded a curve and saw this smoke we weren't sure what we were in for. The fire was not on I-5 so we have no idea what was burning. In 2008 I think most of California was on fire and we were so glad to get to Oregon and away from the smoke.

We stopped at a rest stop before Sacramento and there was a sign in the bathroom about a couple whose home had burned from bad wiring and they needed some food, blankets and money. They were sitting outside so we stopped and talked to them. They were dairy workers and on there way to Texas where they had a job and a small house on a farm. They said the dairy jobs around here were being given to Mexicans they brought in by the car load. They had an old church bus and had just put in a clutch but needed gas. Elijah was 62, a vet and his wife Naomi had been married 35 years. We felt led to believe their story. We had them drive to the next exit and filled their gas tank for them. I do pray they make it to Texas and the job is there for them.